Monday, February 21, 2011

Beware the 'quick' story ideas...

Blegh. Another weekend gone and about the only writing done was dragging what I thought would be a simple little short story idea painfully over the last thousand words or so needed to complete it.

I've had that happen a few times. Usually I let an idea gestate in my head for a while until it picks up the missing pieces. Sometimes I'll have a story arrive that's nearly already full-formed right away. Then I get the foolish notion to take a break from the current writing project to scribble down the story right away. I mean it's all there. I practically don't have to think. Surely I'll be able to bash that out in a couple of days.

It never works out that way. I wonder if it's because the story already seems so fully formed. It's too rigid. There's scene A to scene B to scene C and chunks of cool dialogue that have to be rammed into the appropriate holes. What seems seamless in the mind doesn't always fit together when typed on a computer screen. Then it becomes a bloody minded exercise to bludgeon the story into place.

It seemed so simple at the start.

Take one arrogant online massage parlour reviewer. Add one savvy receptionist prepared to call bullshit on his wheedling for a discount/freebies. After all, what kind of serious reviewer would announce themselves beforehand. Project further and imagine how the lovely naga, Amanda, would deal with an incredibly rude client and...

Ewww. I thought she was one of my nice ones. Horror-head, did you really have to hijack this?